Monthly Archives: April 2015

Jazz o’ sighs

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Before there was the phenomena of rock’n’roll there were various shapes of jazz encompassing full narratives and freeform instrumentals. Not to mention scats.

Sitting in a barber while then oldtime music was playing and I couldn’t help but notice how long the lead in was before Frank Sinatra starts singing. No attempt to barge in and startle the listener.

Lyricists have a licence to work with the structure of jazz in their own manner.

Apart from having heard the jazz standards at some point in my life, I can’t say it’s a field of expertise. To do a faux jazz piece, I’d be inclined to go with a tale that tinges sadness with drama and humour without wasting too many words.

Boom Crash Opera got in decades first with Onion Skin so we’ll have to set out sights elsewhere for subject matter. It doesn’t matter that I have several songs that suit a jazz treatment, we have to practice. I’m not qualified to tackle dixieland with any authority so I’d probably want to ape Miss Otis Regrets or something in that vein.

And no amount of mope eighties Melbourne bands can quell the flow.

Living Large in Liberland

Has your flag started to flag

Have the daze start to drag

You could be living large in Liberland

yeah

A chance to start anew

where the population’s few

and you’ll always have your view

in Liberland

You’re living large in Liberland

Liberland ho

Liberland show

You’re only six k’s long

Yet you’ve got your own song

and nobody else wants that strip

the leader was heard to quip

somehow living large

I tell you living large

in Liberland

Rockin’ Role

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Does this draft conform to rock’n’roll? Or does it have the spirit of rock’n’roll? I’m going to say no to both: yes, it’s got a car and a girl, it deals directly with a relationship that’s taking place right now in the narrative. But it’s not simple; it tries to sneak too many things in and once you start getting layers you’ve moved on from old time rock’n’roll.

With both sexes behind the wheel as evinced by the Beatles’ Baby You Can Drive My Car and Big Black Cadillac with its memorable “she said Balls to you big daddy I ai’n’t never coming back”

There is quirk aplenty in rock’n’roll but you’ll find every novelty number stays assiduously with its premise, be it Monster Mash or Pommy Jackaroo. It’s more of a New Wave (i.e. the stuff that was around at the same time as punk rock) tactic to draw the listener down two different paths, never mind retain a radical indeterminacy. We’re used to these appearing in several of the rock genres but, if the thought had crossed those songwriters’ minds, they would have dismissed this as a distraction, a needless complication.

I’m passing a whole significant history here but it’s because I think the esoteric flights of fancy that rock took in the early seventies were short on the kind of things that occur to The Cars or occur in cars. By the time there were groups called Eddie and the Hot Rods and Racing Cars, the idea of returning to short sharp bursts of song had returned with a vengeance and fast things – like motor vehicles – were good easy topics to write on to fit the frenetic pace.

 

The Rock’n’Roll Ethos

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We all know that rock’n’roll has its roots in a slang word for sexual congress and originates with so-called race records. What became interesting is the way that this began to be hinted at in a more demure time. The music of rebellion was toe-ing the line.

So Susie’s frantic date tells her to wake up; they’ve fallen asleep at the movies and now their ‘reputation is shot’

Rock’n’roll is simple and lends itself to formula. Neil Sedaka with Calendar Girl springs to mind. Run through the months of the year finding nice things to say about the woman of your affection and you have your song.

The use of proper nouns provides for considerable leeway as you can say what you like about Margaret or Donna or Peggy Sue as long as you keep your story straight.

Rock’n’roll is self-referential; good time music that wants to draw your attention to the fact that you’re dancing, enjoying the performance and the music; you’re getting off on it. For the same reason, there’s numerous references to the dances and dance halls, the clothes everyone was wearing. There’s a fair percentage of songs about cars and girls.

To this day, major rock bands like AC/DC base a part of their large catalogue on rock’n’roll mythologising. But they now span forty years themselves.

Rock’n’roll is a music conceived as youthful differentiation, a celebration of teens from sixty years ago.

There’s little in the way of subterfuge. the Big Bopper tells us he likes Chantilly Lace and explains why. It’s her physical attributes and her movement.

There’s early sledging, like Bo Diddley’s Say Man  and speed is celebrated as is action.

She Drove Me

She planted her foot on the accelerator

She said as she led so I’ll see you later

She drove me she drove me drove me

round the bend Where will it end?

                                                                                                                                                  She drove me up the wall

Waiting for a way to recall

If I’d ever been this way before

A map of the traps to explore

She drove me she drove me

to distraction gaining traction

From the perspective of the directive

we rode that road so well

that’s the cursive kiss’n’tell